tokaji. we will also hear from republican of ohio state representative, jay hottinger. then a look at the role of the young ohio voters, from the osu college republicans. ♪ host: good morning, it is monday, october 8, 2012. while columbus day is celebrated across the country today, president of candidates and not taking a holiday from the campaign trail. president obama will be making stops a day in san francisco.

later today, mitt romney will make what is being billed as a major foreign-policy speech at the virginia military institute in lexington, virginia. campaign advisers are positing a speech stark contrasts the president's view. what do you want the governor to talk about in his speech today? what kind of issues do you think need more attention from the candidates on the campaign trail? if you are a republican, give us a call. for republicans, 202-585-3881. for democrats, 202-585-3880. for democrats, 202-585-3880. for independents, 202-585-3882. you can also catch up with us on a all your social media platforms. twitter, facebook, and e-mail span.org.al@c-

good morning to you on this october 8. we want to start with that foreign policy speech that mitt romney is getting ready to make today. here are the headlines from "the washington times." read to you a little bit from the story, "mitt romney on monday will accuse the obama administration of fundamentally misunderstanding the threat of radical islam." host: that address is coming up at 11:20 today. we want to know what you think these candidates should talk about, or what mitt romney

should specifically address in his speech and what foreign- policy issues you think he needs to talk about more on the campaign trail. already getting reaction from facebook this morning. host: just below that, eleanor rights -- host: we want to get to your calls this morning, start calling in now. we have -- we will read to you a few more articles from this speech. "mitt romney strives to stand apart in global policy."

host: again, that speech is happening at about 11:20 this morning. we will take our first call on this from clinton, illinois. matt is waiting on the independent line. good morning. caller: mitt romney needs to go after the whole libya at incident. he may have made a few missteps regarding coming out with information, but he needs to layoff of that, because it is one thing that he can actually use. i do not know if it will help

his foreign policy, because obama can just come back and say -- that is what i did -- but that is something he will really have to focus on if he wants to do those foreign policy speeches. host: thank you for giving us a ring this morning. you want to show you a little bit from that speech released yesterday. mitt romney is expected to say that he knows the president hopes for a safer and freer and more prosperous middle east -- host: we want to bring in now from "the washington post" a reporter to talk about this speech today. thank you for joining us today.

caller: thank you for having me on. host: what does mitt romney have to do in this speech? caller: as was mentioned this morning, this will be late in the game for him to be giving a speech like this. early voting has already started in a number of states. it appears to be an effort by his campaign to continue some of what he talked about in last week's debate, to once again make some clear contrast between himself and the president. more importantly, it is another chance for his campaign to make more out of the less of a choice collection. which does not sound interesting as it is, but mitt romney picked paul ryan and the expectation

among supporters would -- was that this would be a chance for him to outline a campaign with a whole set of policy decisions that would set him apart from the president, but in the past few weeks we have seen the campaign dynamics not changed that much. this is just one more issue on which the republicans are trying to be the president. host: is mitt romney going to focus more on what the president is doing wrong, or more on his own plan? caller: based on the release extroverts -- exurbs of the speech, it looks like they're trying to follow up on obama. there is not a huge gap there and the question for the

president was from a couple of months ago, clearly the mitt romney campaign knows that there is more time to make some headway there. there is always the risk that by focusing on this before the vice presidential debate, even as both sides think that the economy is a top issue, you run into a risk of focusing on too many items as opposed to jobs and economic issues. host: there will also be a foreign policy debate coming up on october 22. is this a sort of preview of that debate? will this be a preview for the obama camp to see what they will be talking about, coming up? caller: it will be a chance for governor romney to do a preview, yes. the thing that i think occurred

many times before, romney camp -- came out and named a lot of these things fairly forcefully. from what we saw yesterday, this will be an even stronger reputation of his view on those issues. getting out on the campaign trail at these paul ryan events, particularly when it comes to the issue of things like foreign aid and how this country deals with the resources when it comes to other places, we do not exactly see that relationship being reciprocal. it is something that has gotten a surprising amount of attention on the trail over the last few weeks. it could be an area where the mitt romney campaign is looking

forward as they decided to hold this speech. host: one piece of the speech that was released yesterday, let us know what is new from this part that has come now. "we will prevent iran from host: are these new ideas? or thinks he has talked about before? caller: it goes into a bit more detail on exactly what the policy should be over there. he is definitely taking a tougher stand in the middle east, as well as on other

issues, like looing defense problems. this speech just seems to give more opportunity to the arguments, like in a state like virginia. the obama campaign is responding to this and are seizing on the governor's foreign trip abroad from over the summer time, releasing a lot of that footage. less than one month from election day you have this turn back towards foreign policy. it is the mirror image of what happened in 2008, when there was a very heavy foreign policy election. host: thank you so much for joining us from "the washington

post," this morning. caller: thank you for having me. host: the obama administration, previewing the mitt romney speech today, this article from yesterday afternoon talks a little bit about this. a campaign spokeswoman talking to reporters on air force one yesterday. host: the obama administration already getting ready for this big speech this morning. let's get more from you on the

republican line. thank you for calling in. caller: i would like mitt romney to talk about the fact that obama.com is owned by a communist in singapore and is one of 400 web sites where obama is collecting worldwide from russia, china, and i can name a bunch of other countries. host: in a major foreign-policy speech, that is what you want him to talk about? caller: yes. i hope that he stops with obama is doing. host: thanks for calling in this morning. jimmy, democratic line. what do you think mitt romney needs to talk about in his address this morning? caller: let me get to your actual question. investing money overseas would be a whole can of worms. i would like him to explain how

or why cutting any part of the budget would impede our ability to protect america. the approach he has had with budget issues is obvious. i am hoping that barack obama will push back on that a little bit. just because you make some cuts in our foreign aid or military budget does not necessarily mean we have compromised our ability to protect america. i think that that issue should be brought up. hopefully it will be done through the debates on thursday. it will open the said way for the argument be made to push in the other direction. host: again, those vice presidential debates are on thursday night. more on this foreign policy

question of from twitter -- gilbert,'s go to okla., this morning on the independent line. caller: first of all, i would like to hear mitt romney -- i would like for him to list his five sons as the first to go over there and fight in iraq and iran. that is a sovereign country. second, mitt romney during the vietnam war lived in france. he lived in hla with a maid and a chef. not a clock, a chef. more important to me is that our military industrial complex is dragging these finances from the country and i would like to hear romney say that he is going to

bring back the draft. it needs to be brought back. if we have 160 military bases around the world. the thing is, when you have not been in a war, you are the first one to want other people to go. look at what has happened. most of the young people in the military now are coming home and making less than $30,000 per year. you will never hear the mitt romney children -- host: where are you getting this information? caller: from politico and msnbc. it does not need to be fact check, it has been done here. we need to stop the senseless wars. we have 18 kids, every day, committing suicide coming back from over there.

time and time again. the romney children did not even cut the grass. host: thank you for the call this morning. we want to talk about afghanistan and what mitt romney will say in his speech today. host: we also want to point you to "the washington times" opinion -- opinion piece this morning. from helmand province, oliver

holmes writes --

host: the headline of that peace is open " obama -- is "troops worst enemy is washington." olivia, waiting on the republican line. caller: our wars are economic. we are there because we are protecting our own basic self- interest. we left saddam hussein alone until they burned our oilfields

in kuwait. we left him alone while he killed the kurds. there comes a point where we have to draw a line and if they step over it, we have to hit them with everything we have got. host: does mitt romney need to say exactly what that is in his speech today? caller: i think it does. thomas jefferson did this, when our commerce was interfered with. it is in our basic self-interest to stay in egypt because of the canal. barack obama has systematically torn apart our allies, taking away all of our support systems,

creating a vacuum. libya, egypt, he has systematically down this across the country. there needs to be a stop on this. we need to protect our allies. host: that was olivia, from west virginia, this morning. more from that address that mitt romney is going to make this morning. host: john, atlanta, georgia this morning. what do you want to hear? caller: does he plan to get our troops out of afghanistan?

the thing that i am looking at is obama, president obama basically does not need to flex his muscles. as a nation we do not need to flex our muscles, because there is always this thing where we do not have to prove anything. you know? we are the most powerful nation on the face of this earth today. we do not have anything to prove. the president, this president, has nothing to prove. he has shown remarkable restraint in casting out the olive leaf to our foreign neighbors and trying to keep everything together.

i disagree with a collar that says otherwise. this idea that he is weak and inflaming more of the islamic countries and everything, no, he is not. host: thank you for the call this morning. stella rights -- host: referring to the attacks on u.s. embassies overseas. specifically the attacks in libya. here is the headline from "the washington post" today. "libyan fiat -- prime minister fails cabinet vote."

host: mitt romney is also going to talk today a little bit, or a lot about that conflict in a gauzy, libya -- been gauzy -- libya.zgahzi,

host: back to the phones, we have about 20 minutes left on this first segment. richland, north carolina. steve? thank you for calling in. caller: i wanted to ask gilbert from oklahoma, he stated that none of mitt romney's sons are in the service. what branch of service did bill clinton, barack obama, and joe biden served in? these folks but little people because they decided not to serve, or to serve. my father came back from vietnam in 1971 and told me not to go

into the service because of the way they were treated when they came home. my draft number was high enough that i did not have to go. i do not understand what is going on in this country. host: what should mitt romney talk about? caller: the military protection of our interests, he should continue to do so. i think like 5% of the cost in the pentagon, but we would not know, as we have not seemed to have a budget for anything. these folks call in for information -- bill clinton is the one who repealed glass- stiegel. it led to the downfall of housing and the problems we had in 2008.

everyone contributed to it. 60 million jobs went away in the internet bubble. host: 94 calling in this morning. i want to point you to "the new york times," and the article calling for both campaigns to fine-tune their messages. host: here is a look at the dynamics on how they have shifted. the first part of that column is the unemployment numbers.

host code that questioning of the jobs numbers continued today. this is from the opinion page, an editorial from "the washington times." we will read to you a little bit from that.

host: yesterday, on the sunday shows, some of the president's advisers talked about the attacks on the department of labor jobs reports. let's show you a piece of robert gibbs talking about this. [video clip] >> there are people that believe the real jobs report is in a safe somewhere with the president's real birth certificate. the idea that someone like jack welch could go on television and single-handedly embarrass himself by saying that somehow these statistics are made up? it is incredibly dangerous. we wonder why institutions in this country, while the perceptions of them are failing, because people are making these things up.

as for the evidence? he said that he had none. host: that was robert gibbs talking on "meet the press" yesterday. we have 15 more minutes taking your calls on what you want to hear from the mitt romney at foreign-policy address later this morning. staying on foreign policy, ryan is on the line from amarillo, texas. caller: i wanted to talk about the function of a iran. there are more sanctions on this country, and we already have problems with them. we want to police these countries to make them hate us even more? it could lead to another war. i want to see mitt romney talked about what we could do to have these countries help us, rather than causing more problems. host: let's go out to atlanta,

georgia. independent line. joe, go ahead. caller: in my opinion, mitt romney is a naked man in a snowstorm when it comes to foreign policy. he single-handedly revealed the existence of mi6, which is a big no-no. we have seen that he has no military experience. none of his family have served in any way. but they do have all these good mormon missionaries. i would like to point out to the republican conservatives, all of this talk about obama getting millions from russia and china for his campaign, this is psycho talk and completely out of line. i do not understand where these people are getting their

information. barack obama is a centrist, a conservative leader, and he respects the nation. he has done quite a bit to protect it. host: that was joe, from georgia, this morning. we want to point you to the front page of "the washington journal" this morning. a picture of hugo chavez, the headline saying that he left to victory in venezuela. defeating the challenger who campaigned for change in the oil-rich nation. those are your shots of hugo chavez there. one other news article this morning from "the new york times," the first commercial cargo flight to the international space station lifted off on sunday evening,

inaugurating a new era for nasa. host: on the foreign policy

question, we are going to billy joe, missouri. caller: good morning. i was just wondering if people could do a search on foreign aid. who is gold finger? he is not the only one. but they could do a search on that. my question is, on iraq, we were there for 10 years. how much money was allocated in 10 years in iraq? host of diesel the issues you want it wrongly talking about? iraq? caller: i want to talk about where the money went and who got the money. halliburton, i heard that they

had four and a vulture funds. who is really getting this money? how many vultures are out there, like gold finger? i really think we should bring our troops back. what did japan say when we went after them for pearl harbor? we woke the sleeping giant? we need to get back to the sleeping giant part. i will listen for your comments on the tv. host: joseph ramirez rights in on twitter about the mitt romney speech -- host: a foreign policy issue that we want to update you on, a reuters story today, "skirmish with turkey shows no let up."

host: we are turning to west florida on the republican line. bill, thank you for calling in this morning. caller: i would like to hear mitt romney reassert his rejection of the two-stage

solution for israel. i think that that would greatly undermine the israeli ability to defend itself and would provoke another major war, if you like throwing blood into a pit of sharks. they are surrounded by enemies. any perception of them getting weaker will provoke another war. i would like mitt romney to call out all the muslim nations around the world for their severe persecution of christians, secularists, homosexuals, women, and children. i told live reject the hillary clinton assertion that the u.s. should excuse the mess behavior moslems around the world. we at one time had great problems in our democracy. so, we give them a pass?

i think our relationships with other nations should be tied to how they treat the most vulnerable in their society and islam has a pervasive problem that should be recognized. we should not be bashing muslims, but of christians can be criticized severely by secularists and liberals, even mocked, so should islam also be subject to scrutiny and criticism because they deserve it greatly. lastly, i think we should stop supporting a corrupt regime in saudi arabia for the purpose of wealth and oil. we should be developing our own domestic, carbon based energy products. even as far back as the iranian hostage crisis, everyone, right, left, center, up and down,

everyone realized that oil in the middle east was a national- security problem. host: we will go to clinton, md., on the democratic line. caller: the thing i would like for mr. romney to do is tell the truth, tell us what he really thinks about the policies of the united states, and not say one thing today and change it tomorrow. mr. oliver north, i want people to know that he was a colonel in the marine corps who instigated the iran contra war. he lost the war there in direct opposition to what congress had said we were supposed to do. drugs in this country support the war because congress would not approve the money. we have a big lie. this is how romney is going

after this election, they cannot win any other way. the american people have to wake up and realize this man is -- this man is a liar. host: chris from alabama rights in -- -- writes in. host: we want to show you more from the speech. mitt romney will say --

host: we have a couple of minutes left on this first segment of "the washington journal" before we start discussing the battery and state of ohio. arlington, virginia, republican line. caller: good morning. thank you very much for c-span, as always. first of all, the 7.8% unemployment number, we were over 8% for the entire tenure of this president, and now just before the election this chicago products president has under 8%? we are supposed to swallow that? of course not. those numbers were cut. -- cooked. host: what makes it apparent? caller co that it was always 8%

or overt up until the election side -- up until the election. when your adult child comes home to live with you because he has nowhere to turn, you know that that is it for this nation. i do want to speak for the quickly to this upcoming speech from governor romney. first, he is not a liar, he is not -- he is a mormon, he is not allowed to lie. he has had to compromise with an 87% democratic legislative body in massachusetts as governor. he has compromised with far left, liberal democrats. all that he really needs to do in this speech, i think, is point out this failed president domestically on foreign policy.

obama is a failed president. in the middle east his policies have been horrible. the middle east is on fire. you would never see islamic terrorists taking over egypt. we have to point out how wrong president obama was in saying that jose mubarak had to go. he played ball very well on the x kernel and internal he was not as bad as everyone was saying. extern way, he kept the peace. this president said he has to go, because after mubarak in libya, when the uprising happened in iran, he did nothing. the islamic state sponsor of

terrorism, tehran, damascus, no one says a word about that. they're the ones keeping the peace. host: one more call in this last section of "the washington journal." [ring tones] host: are you there? caller: this is alabama. host: go ahead. caller: i would like to thank c- span. brian lambert is a great man, and history will show that, as has been done so far. any of us can call and express our opinion.

i would like to hear governor romney speak forcefully about how he would turn around the situation. i think this time, in my opinion. you are not respected if you are nice to belize. the only thing that belize understand our power and strength. i would rather be feared and respected than have someone stabbed me in the back and block my embassy and have my president go on an apology tour, apologizing for everything. also, the next time the israeli prime minister asks for a meeting, with everything going up in flames, with obama not having time to speak to him, but

he had time to go to a fund- raiser and appear on late night? i find that strange. and i am the president who is going to work? by the way, on the cuts that people keep talking about medieval republicans -- i did my homework and found out that cuts is just a word for lessening the increase of what has already been preplanned into a future budget. that is the way that the cbo works. host: rebecca from alabama calling in this morning. more from "the wall street journal."

host: we have a few more minutes on this first segment of "the washington journal" this morning. linda, democratic line. what do you hear -- what do you want to hear from mitt romney today?

caller: i would like to hear him tell the truth, for once. he has looked the camera right in the eye and lied the whole time. i would like for him to tell the country what he has done. not what he thinks the president has done wrong. he does not have a plan. he is just a rich man that thinks he deserves the office but does not want to work for it. host: thank you for all the callers the call in during that first segment. now we put the spotlight on the key battleground state of columbus -- of ohio. we will be voting our focus

there for the remainder of "washington journal." host: ohio state university, founded in 1870, home to 50,000 students in columbus. a section of this state is said to be the most important swing portion of the state. joining us here, daniel tokaji, thank you for being with us. if you look at this part of the state, the president is going to be here tomorrow. 13 times the president, 16 times this must win part of the state.

guest: you have the democratic northeast, cleveland, and then hamilton county, primarily republican, central ohio, traditionally up for grabs. the surrounding counties are traditionally very republican. this is the middle of the seesaw, usually tipping the election. as far as candidates go, no republican in history has ever won, and no democrat has done it since 1960. they believe that if they win ohio, they win reelection. host: the president has been going to a lot of college campuses over the past couple of weeks. how much enthusiasm is there

amongst the students here in ohio state and amongst campuses in ohio? guest: he had large turnouts in kent. i expect the turnout here to top 30,000. we saw that in madison, wisconsin. in all reality, i have been doing stories throughout the summer. while younger voters still prefer him, while mitt romney has not yet picked up the support of young people, the enthusiasm is significantly less. i know that the obama campaign is worried. he picked it up in the best circumstances four years ago. they know they have to get a shot of energy back in there.

host: you are a native from california, now living in ohio. california is not even in the mix, the president yesterday raising money. what is it like for you? guest: as someone who studies election law, it is great to be in a state where you see presidential candidates campaigning. because of our electoral college system, most of the country nowadays, it is a small number of states that get virtually all of the attention. we are either the beneficiaries are the victims, depending on your perspective. you cannot turn on the television in ohio without seeing a campaign advertisement, including many presidential advertisements, without being hit by a motorcade.

in your station, channel 10, at 5:30 in the morning there is a six minute commercial break and in those minutes six different commercial ads ran. at what point is there a law of diminishing returns? guest: if your campaign has the money, you cannot go quiet. i think he would be at a disadvantage, if they go dark. more importantly, to answer the question, the vote in ohio is today, this week. these candidates are doing everything that they can, restructuring to some degree. mitt romney and the president talking directly to the camera, making their appeal.

i think that dan is right. this is one of five states in the country where, commercial after commercial, candidates have a presence. this is key to their strategy. host: coming after just one debate, there are two more scheduled. is it a good idea to have early voting when this race could change for the president or for mitt romney? guest: personally, i think it is a good idea to have early voting. it is important to provide that for the convenience of the voters. the jury is still out to the extent as to if early voting increases turned out, but what we have seen across the country in recent decades and recent years is a sharp uptick in the number of voters voting before election day. i think that in person early

voting as opposed to mail in ballots have the advantages. for example, we know that a lot of mail in ballots do not get taken, for example. not a huge number, but in person, early voting, you avoid those problems. one might argue that you should limit it to a shorter period of time. but there is no question that there are some advantages to having early voting. guest: ohio is looking close today, and there was adamant opposition to before the election voting. they said they would cut that off the friday before the tuesday election. two courts have sided with them.

there are demographics from like the voter. guest: the sixth circuit court of appeals decision from friday of last week, as was just mentioned, came out in favor of the obama bank -- obama -- obama campaign position three days before the election. civilian voters have to be treated the same as military voters. host: as you learn quickly when you come to this campus, it is the ohio state university. no correction. there are about 60,000 students in the ohio state university campus, including satellite campuses. we are inside of the ohio union. our phone lines are open. 202-5 a 5-383 is set aside --

202-585-3883 is set aside for viewers inside of ohio. i want to go back to the issue of the ballot initiative in ohio. guest: a swing state within the state. democrats swept every statewide office in 2006. four years later, republicans swept every single one. it just so happened that it triggered redistricting. the republicans did what the majority usually does, they redrew maps. the new maps favor republicans. we have about a 50: 50 state. but when you look at the

legislative map, it is way out of whack. there are a lot more republicans. it creates a non-partisan commission that speaks to this better, basically drawing legislative lines. we have seen it in arizona and other states. they are getting for it, they do not like it. there is a big question as to whether there is enough funding on the pro beside as to whether this will go down under the weight of the republican party. guest: i am part of the campaign committee for issue to, creating an independent citizen commission to redraw those lines. even the we are a 50/50 state, there are almost no individual legislative or congressional districts that are truly competitive. around three-quarters of the congressional district are

drawn in favor of the party currently in power. for practical purposes in ohio, even the u.s. senate elections are very competitive, our legislative elections are not. that is what issue to his point to try to change. politicians in the state house downtown do not like this issue. they would have to be which is why we think it's essential that ohioans vote for issue 2 to restore power back to the people. but they claim this gives a blank check and takes

control out of the hands of elected officials and puts it in the hands of the advisory board. guest: the blank check allegation has already been proven wrong. you don't have to take just my word for it. the ohio supreme court, which has six republicans and one democrat, has found that allegation to be false. listen, the politicians who control things right now are desperate to hold on to their own power and of told one lie after another in an effort to keep that power. the reality is this commission would be a lot more transparent and therefore accountable to the people than the process we saw last year where maps were drawn in a secret hotel room, which was referred to in their own e- mail as the bunker, presumably so no one could see who was going in and out. host: our guest is a professor of law at osu and jim heath, a

host of the sunday morning show -- guest: capitol square. host: let's go to steve on the phone. caller: i had seen some ads running in our area and i've been put off with the negativity. there was one in particular, my being an independent and very libertarian, i did not like the way the health care thing went on. so i am leaning more toward romney. it was one ad that the president was running about the automobile industry and how they saved over 100,000 jobs in ohio, automobile-related. it does not really mention that honda is the largest manufacturer in the state and did not get bailout money. ford and honda both hired more

people than gm combined. host: thanks for the caller. we will get a response. guest: i don't have any particular response to that, but you see a lot of claims made in ads, some more true than the others. in terms of the economy in ohio, the unemployment rate across the state is about 7%. national average is now 7.8%. in other parts of the country like detroit, it's above 10%, get the -- yet that seems to be a case strongly democratic state still. >> i remember covering romney earlier this year in places like lorraine where he wanted to build the narrative that the good west was struggling and that he could help it out much better than the president. the problem is you have an ambitious and aggressive

governor john kasich already. he painted the narrative that jobs are being created again in ohio and companies are coming back. after super tuesday, the romney camp changed their strategy. no longer recovery. john kasich jump on board and we have seen little discussion about some of the worst conditions in the state. it's been a troubling narrative and a challenging one for the romney camp to try to get on board. it's the economy good? host: it's important to remember in ohio, people associate the american auto industry. industry. much of northern ohio is dependent upon the success of the auto industry, which is why 's statementney h

about letting detroit go bankrupt and has had ramifications for ohio as well. host: let's go to mark joining us from ohio. a democrat. caller: i wanted to talk to you guys about the environment and something that was set in the debate last week. the president had the lead on energy and he said we were dealing now more than ever for gas and oil and he's right. then mr. romney came back with our bottle saying, mr. president, are drilling more for gas and oil, but it's not due to your policy. then he went on to say that because we are not drilling on federal and. why the president did not jump on that, i don't know. all the president would have to

have said, was, mr. romney, do you think the american public would condone drilling in yellowstone? do you think the american public would condone drilling in yosemite? i just sat back from fly-fishing in montana and i was on federal land fly-fishing. i was on federal land where nothing is going on and i enjoyed that. i don't want to be fly-fishing next to an oil well or fracking liquid that is stored in pits that is poisonous. i just don't understand mr. romney saying we should be drilling like crazy on federal land. that just goes to show how he is uneducated about the circle of life in the natural environments. that's all i have to say. host: thanks for the call. guest: fracking and coal are

major issues. the romney campaign has tried to cultivate those votes. they have gotten into trouble here and there on coal. fracking is something the state of ohio has proceeded on and have opened up state plans to do that. the state believes they are sitting on a potential gold mine, the marcellus shale and utica sale in the northeast corner of the state. romney is trying to tap into that. i have not dared the president speaks much about much of opposing coal. -- i have not heard the president's speech much about opposing coal. host: do the gas prices rising in california and other areas impact on voter turnout?

guest: the president spoke about energy earlier this year at ohio state and gas prices were about to hit $4. the narrative at the time was the president wanted to get ahead of the spin. incumbents usually have a difficult time at winning reelection when the economy is not so good. in this entire election process, it's fine to look at the narrative of this bad economy. the fact that we have an inflationless that economy. that's got a long way to help democrats tried to hold . as we all know, with a bad dose of inflation, all of us would feel it. you go to the grocery store to try to buy milk and bread. it's not been the case in this election cycle. inflation is next to nothing. host: this is a map of ohio.

you can see columbus in the center. the red area is cincinnati. hamilton county, strong republican. cuyahoga county in the northeastern part of the state. then you look in these two. areas -- two pink areas. guest: 70 of the counties are red. the big cities are blue. the rural parts, a smaller counties are part of the republican coalition. if you look at election results on a statewide map, you will see mostly red. the blue areas is where the population centers are. host: turnout for election day and early voting, what are you looking at? to get out thetle base, for democrats in relatively few urban areas like

columbus, toledo, akron, cleveland, dayton. and republicans getting out their base in rural and ex-urban areas, this will be critical. just as important if not more important than appealing to the meeting in voter. in this respect, this is why everybody looks to ohio every four years. a microcosm for the rest of the country, not in all respects but in this respect, where the battle over turnout will be huge. that's precisely why the obama campaign has been fighting so hard to preserve the early voting the last three days before the election, because they see this as a critical way of getting their base out. i think they think they are in a better position to do that for early voting than the republicans, but we will see about that. guest: ohio has the longest streak of voting for the winner. george w. bush won reelection in

2004 with ohio's electoral votes and carry it with 51% of the vote. president obamacare doh highfill with 52% of the vote. we will be looking at hamilton county on election night. president carried hamilton county, which is unusual for a democrat to do. republicans are very confident that he's not going to carry it again this year. the romney campaign believes that its numbers in those key areas of the state that you showed, he is outperforming john mccain by a wide margin. host: since 1948, only lyndon johnson, george mcgovern, and john kerry of performed in ohio compared to where they performed nationally. guest: yes. it is sort of what dan alluded to. the mix of rural and urban, white and black, male and female, all of it is a microcosm within the the tri-state. that's why it turns out to be such a good bellwether and such

a good barometer of where the country is, year after year. -- it is a microcosm within the buckeye state. host: pennsylvania, michigan, even in west virginia, the states bordering ohio, what makes this state so different? michigan and pennsylvania seemed to lean democratic. west virginia is likely to be a solid republican state for mitt romney. what is it about this state that differs from its neighbors? guest: we have parts of the states that are quite like west virginia, that are appalachian, most of those areas where obama is not likely to do well. , northeasternate' ohio, traditionally steel and

automobile manufacturing, like pittsburgh. then we have parts of the state that are quite like the south, the rural areas would tend to vote heavily republican. so it is precisely -- in some respects it is a unique mix of having several large urban areas and a lot of rural areas, appalachian areas, that put us at a tipping point almost always in presidential elections. host: we welcome our listeners on c-span radio on x and channel 119, we are coming to you live from the ohio state university. daniel tokaji is a professor of law at osu. jim heath is a cbs affiliate television show host. tony is joining us from south carolina. caller: good morning. i want to say something. i generally vote republican, but

i have voted for kennedy. i like romney, but i will vote for obama, because i want to see the democrats get what they deserve. the black people are voting for obama because he's black and that's fine. and they think he's going to be good for them. that's fine. but they talk about ron -- about romney lying. obama said that his father or grandfather fought in world war ii, which could not be right according to his age. but obama lies all the time. his birth certificate is a lie. why have we gone to the u.n. all the time to get this one world tin? i want th

-- one world thing? read the rise and fall of the third reich and you will see this guy is paralleling everything that hitler did. a special army and so on. host: thanks for the call. i do want to clear up one thing. the president has not talked about his father, but his grandfather did serve in world war ii and his speech is available on our website, c- span.org. guest: i think it goes to show the polarization in this country that we thought might go away upon barack obama's election. this country was heavily divided during the george w. bush years. the partisanship still exists today, both sides. ohio is an example of where getting out the vote will be an interesting barometer for both sides. in 2010, republicans swept every state.

less than 12 months ago we had a referendum on senate bill 5, highly controversial, where governor kasich ltd. unions' right to collectively bargain. the state went to vote on that. a 51% ohioans voted to repeal it. this state swings and its wings quickly. but partisanship -- this will be a ground game of who can get out the vote. independents, will they show at the polls? they are more disenfranchised this time around. guest: we have seen intensified polarization, not just among people in washington but across the country in recent years. the point that i would add is it is making it increasingly difficult to govern, because redistricting is a part of this and the incentive among people

in congress, whether it is a republican president or a democratic president, is to oppose virtually everything that the president of the opposite party wants to throudo. our system depends on cooperation and compromise. that's why many people across the political spectrum are very frustrated on how things are not working in washington. host: let's go to mark next. you could have a triangle between ohio, virginia, and florida, the three battleground states. mark is in florida. caller: thanks, steve. and thanks to your guests for all their work. seems whenever i call, you are hosting the show. at age 18 through age 30 i was in the u.s. marines and guarded the u.s. embassy and as a marine, which had its own demands. i did well at that. i am a unionized worker in the

united states. i gave the non-unionized world a chance and got the beat out of me. i got my dignity back years ago by joining organized labor. my father was in the union. i moved south to florida from the midwest. i build an area called the villages practically with my bare hands where many retirees from ohio and michigan and illinois and new york all of. it is a neat little area. but i had nothing to show for myself and barely any money to pay my bills. i joined the carpenters' union in gainesville and got my self- respect back and my dignity immediately. for the ohio listeners, understand what we are talking about is standard of living for

people who work for a living, whether they are bus drivers or cafeteria workers or nurses and now even doctors or reporters or professors, that we need to, as americans, put our collective family and back together again. mitt romney has done well, but if you look at the roots of bain capital, you may want to check into his connections to central america and making money off what happened with the cold war, salvadoran people. i would ask the people of ohio to realize part of the republican party today care's not for abraham lincoln nor general sherman nor general grant. they are still confederates. the poor people in the coal mines of southern ohio and west virginia, make no more than about $14 an hour, which we

produce in tune in to a little better than that. most of the coal miners are not in the union, so, workers, stand up for yourselves. we're not asking for anything but to make enough of a living to look at our children with respect. host: thanks for the call. the average salary for autoworker in ohio, did you? have been estimates guest: i don't know. host: the wall street journal reporting that now because of the 2010 law that organized labor can go door-to-door, does that impact the ground game for the democrats? guest: it does. the state still has a lot of union households and a lot of people loyal to their unions, in contrast to a lot of the country. jim mentioned senate bill 5, the law that would have stripped public-sector workers, many of their collective bargaining rights. this was a law passed by the

republican legislature, signed by the republican governor in 2011 and then repealed by a citizen referendum last year. this hit has increased bay partisan polarization around these issues -- the partisan polarization and gotten a lot of union households upset with our republican governor and maybe the party in general. host: marie from dayton, ohio. caller: good morning. i already voted for obama, because romney is. all over the is one day he says one thing and the following day he says something else. i cannot trust this man at all. -- romney is all over the place. i cannot believe people trust him, investing and destroying

companies, putting people out of work. in chicago right now in freeport, illinois, people are on strike because the company , the people ha d -- the company is going to close in february. people beg romney to go there and he did not go there. so i don't see how people could vote for romney. it's incredible. host: thanks for the call. another early voter.

guest: michelle obama was in the state last week in cincinnati on the first-ever early voting with 6800 supporters. she said i want you all to follow the staff across the street to the hamilton county board of elections office and vote now. this is critical for both sides to try to get as many of these votes as possible. on senate bill 5, 61% of ohioans, that means republicans and independents -- excuse me, democrats and independents voted to repeal senate bill 5. 68% of ohioans voted to repeal obamacare. independents are critical. they judged things as best they can. if they want to send a message, they will. but in the same election cycle they are sending a message to president obama and federal health care while also telling john kasich, the republican, but he went too far on collective bargaining.

guest: bush won in 2004. obama won with 52% at. no strategist will tell you this will be anything more than 51% or 52%, so ohioans did not believe that recent poll. host: what was wrong? guest: when you poll before independence in ohio begin to make definitive conclusions, it is just awfully early for a swing states like this to be pulling 30 days out. i think we are going to know and ohio will tighten and this is going to be close to in the final week before the election. host: i want to share a couple campaign commercials on the air

right now. many of the viewers have been commenting on them. the first is entitled "dishonesty by the bombing campaign." [video clip] >> this was dishonest. i am not in favor of $5 trillion tax cut. >> according to an independent nonpartisan study, barack obama and the liberals will raise taxes on middle-class. >> the chairman of that independent group is from the's former company. dick cheney is on its board. newt gingrich was there as well. it's not independence, it's just not true. host: what is your reaction? guest: well, every single day the campaigns are releasing dance like that. they almost fit the topic of the day. if the other candidate has made an error, they will be on the air in ohio? within 24 hours exploiting that

error. this goes back to when we talk about the impact they have. does an individual act like that -- ad like that have an impact? probably not, but there's an overall message, independents begin to form opinions about candidates. i think obama campaign advertised really heavily on ohio television through the summer and there were quite successful in getting out ahead of mitt romney in this state and defining him. rob portman could bid on the ticket. he was not. -- rob portman could have been. on been. president obama was spending heavily in ohio to define romney and i think some of that stouck. guest: the obama campaign strategy has been to paint romney as an out of touch rich guy. we have seen tightening in the

polls in the last few days in ohio and throughout the country in the wake of mitt romney's very strong debate performance. nowhink what we are no seeing is the obama campaign strategy, which is to paint mitt romney as you cannot trust him. this barely resembles what we saw eight years ago when the election came down to ohio and the bush campaign was very successful in painting john kerry, the challenger, as a foot locker -- a flip-flopper. guest: so many similarities between 2004 and 2008. whether it's george w. bush or

barack obama. the campaigns in the state are very similar. host: marie is on the phone from cleveland, ohio. caller: i have been in cleveland all my life. i heard your guests talking about hamilton. hamilton yes, hamilton county is a heavily republican state, but there are lot of democrats also in hamilton. i am part of cuyahoga county. i believe president obama will take ohio. i believe a lot of it has to do with the auto industry and the people that supply the parts to that industry along with the fact that no one trusts romney in this state. he has flip flopped on everything and allied.

when he said the although ban -- when he said the automobile company should go bankrupt, that was all. so i do believe barack obama will win this state. as far as the polls go, i don't think they are often very much. i do believe that he has come to cleveland and proven that he does care about the middle-class and poor people in this state. that will make a difference. host: thanks very much for calling from cleveland. let me go back to what she was calling about, the early advertising that set the stage for this campaign. the obama campaign clearly spending a lot more in june, july, and august. when the books are written about 2012, what will that tell you about the strategy by the obama campaign, compared to the romney campaign that says it is setting its resources for the final push? guest: it's fascinating.

mitt romney struggled here in the primary. he ended up winning ohio on super tuesday with 38% of the vote against rick santorum. rick santorum really won big in areas where romney needs to win big now. the motivation veto about earlier. romney struggled early on. as he wraps up the nomination, and the president revs up. there were strategic moves that did not favor -- go 0 highfill's way. early spending does define your opposition. we might look back and candidates might conclude that they will have to have enough money to do that early, early advertising. all the advertising we are seeing now, if they all look alike, then it's the early advertising that i think will be regarded as working here and will force all candidates to be on the air much earlier. host: is one of those ads from

the romney campaign and the focus is jobs in ohio. [video clip] >> the question ohio families are asking israel can bring back the jobs? under president obama we have lost a half million manufacturing jobs. china has passed us in manufacturing. i will stand up to china. i have a detailed plan to create 12 million new jobs, comically producing our own energy in the ground in ohio. i am mitt romney and i approve this message because ohio families cannot afford a for you are more years like the last four. host: is this resonating? guest: i think so. it is effective with independents. independents are looking at this economy. if there were higher inflation, it would be almost a no-brainer progress of wh o the incumbent was. they are unsettled about the future plans of obama. i interviewed a woman who has been unemployed nine or 10 months in the state. she said the president promised

me a job. she still plans on sticking with him, but she's very disappointed. whether independents trust mitt romney in the end, that will be in the big question, but the president's campaign is confident they will not. host: jim said something earlier that i want to get your reaction to. rob portman, if he were on the ticket, would this they'd be more competitive for mitt romney? guest: marginally. my general view on vice- presidential picks, they are fun, but don't matter nearly as much as everyone thinks. even in ohio. the reality is senator portman , a lot of people in ohio and many people will be voting could not pick him out of the lineup. even though he's our u.s.

senator, he's not terribly visible. it might have given romney a marginal bumper. -- bump. maybe it would've been enough to swing it, but i don't think it would have had a big impact. guest: this is where dan and i disagree. i think it would've had a huge impact. ohio has not had anyone on either national ticket since the 1940's. i don't think you could give measured the jolts of enthusiasm and excitement you would've put into grass-roots republican activists, knowing they had one of their own this close to the white house on the national ticket. he could've locked up hamilton county. he easily defeated the lieutenant governor in the senate race. one of the top fund-raisers, he's been around the block in washington a few times and is well known. i think he would've locked up a pivotal southwestern corner of the united states for the romney ticket. the enthusiasm from republican activists would've been much higher. i personally believe that it

probably would've been enough. my intuition is the romney campaign with robert portman on their ticket would be in virginia and florida and would not be worried about ohio. host: tim is the political reporter with channel 10 of the cbs affiliate in columbus, ohio. daniel tokaji is a professor of law, a native of california and spent the last 10 years at ohio state university. we will continue our conversation on a life of politics -- on ohio politics. columbus, will determine how the state votes on election day. when we come back, two state lawmakers, a democrat and republican with different perspectives. first, the latest from c-span radio from nancy calo on this columbus day monday. good morning. >> a news at 8:34 a.m. eastern, iran says it has blocked a cyber

attacks on the computer network of its offshore drilling platform. it's an e-official news agency says theis blaming israel for having planned the attack. the chairman of the house intelligence committee is warning that china's two leading technology firms pose a major security threat to the u.s. the panel says regulators should block mergers and acquisitions in the u.s. by the two companies. the results of the committee pose a yearlong investigation will be released this morning. last night, president obama doh about his performance in last week's first presidential debate, killing an audience in los angeles that included many celebrities in acting and movies, that he did not always performed flawlessly night after night, like them. -- telling the audience.

the president is on a fund- raising tour of california where the cost to attend last night's dinner with $25,000 per person. republican presidential nominee mitt romney focuses on foreign policy today. he is proposing that the u.s. take a more assertive role in syria, put conditions on aid to egypt, and tighten sanctions on iran. you can hear romney's remarks on c-span radio or watch the event on c-span. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. [video clip] >> one of the things i've heard from a number of companies and individuals i've met with his the fcc has sometimes not acted appropriately with respect to issues important to the committee or delaying actions on other issues. i wanted to think about different ways the commission could speed up its process.

one of the keep things the commission can and should do is to enable more dynamic industry by getting more spectrum into the commercial marketplace. there have been a number of different proposals on the table. finally, i've tried to think of different ways to remove barriers to infrastructure. for every billion dollars that the private-sector spends on cyber deployment, between 15,020 thousand new jobs can be created. from a regulatory perspective, our goal should be to remove the barriers to enable the private sector to take risks and make a multibillion-dollar investments. >> the newest republican commissioner of the sec, tonight at 8:00 eastern on the communicator's on c-span2. >> our debate hub website

provides coverage of all the presidential and vice presidential debates. it's the only place you will see our live coverage before and after the debates. you can search and watched by topic. watch and viewer-created clips as well. and read streaming tweets from political reporters and other viewer reaction at c-span 2012 debate hub. back live at the ohio union in columbus. today members of the state legislature. jay hottinger is a republican from the 71st district. guest: from central ohio, licking county. host: and bob hagen is from the youngstown area. let me begin with the senate race in this state. many people going into this campaign felt this senate race was going to help the turnout for both parties.

and now the polls indicate brown is a head at the moment. >guest: brown was elected to office when he was 18 or 19 years old. josh mandel, not as much, and under candidate, recently elected to statewide office -- a younger candidate. josh is bringing a lot of enthusiasm. both candidates have raised a lot of money themselves and there's a lot of outside interest as well. that election will be on the coattails of the presidential. whoever wins the presidential, if they're able to win by a large enough margin, they will have an impact on whether or not brown is reelected to go to washington. host: we have been talking about florida and ohio and georgia. the incumbent democrat is leading in the polls in two of the three. what impact does that have on the president's campaign in

ohio and what does that tell you about the senate race? guest: there's an alarming amount of money being used in these campaigns. people are getting uptight about being bombarded with a tremendous amount of advertising. on the other hand, we are seeing a coattail effect. not only the senate races but the down ticket races. the president is on the rise. there's an indication that in more cases than not, including the ohio senate race, we have an individual that has been called on the carpet for not being as honest as he should be. they have found is panza been on eight or nineies times -- they have found that his pants have been on fire. we're seeing a lot of changes in these important states. host: how many truly undecided

are there in ohio in this presidential election? republicane the fiel nominee was set, i believe that you are looking at 90% of ohioans already had their mind made. -- made up. massive amounts of money being spent on both sides try to move a very small portion. that's probably been cut in half now. you're probably looking at the present time or 4% of the people still undecided. host: this is your district. why is this part of the state? the swing state cleveland will go democratic and cincinnati will go republican. the president will be here tomorrow. guest: it's all in the democratic. the northern part of the state

is a much more blue area and the southern part is more red. central ohio, columbus, franklin county, the surrounding counties, that always determines whether or not -- which way it will go. ohio swings back and forth, from democrat to republican. the democrats have a short window in terms of being able to give people opportunity. we have seen a very anemic recovery over the last four years. that does not bode well for the president. in the swing county's, i think it will ultimately go republican or provide enough of the republican votes to help get romney over the top. host: the direction of the country, this is one of the most popular polling questions. what's the mood of your constituency? guest: very democratic, a little

restless in the past year-and-a- half or two, because the entire state is run by the republicans. they have attacked collective bargaining rights. they have gone after teachers, firefighters, police officers. it has been a redstate and a purple state and there's a real attack on working people. people are starting to realize this all reflects not only on the gubernatorial and state level but in the presidential. an attack on working people than has surfaced in too many opportunities by this administration and as governor. you have a real worry. i think people want a low better -- a little better balance. the governor did not win with a majority, only 49%. i think people are reacting to that. host: the governor says things

have turned around and the unemployment rate is below the national average and things are on track. that's not the statement mitt romney is giving ohio voters. the republican presidential nominee says things could be a lot better, but they are pretty sluggish. guest: things could be in better, but things are improving in the state of ohio and they have been. it's due to some of the things we have done in the state of ohio and some direction of the governor has provided. if you look at ohio versus the nation, we are doing better than the rest of the nation. the sluggish recovery still is taking place across the country. ohio is doing a little better than that. a lot of that goes to a credit to our governor and the work of our legislature. host: both of our guests are members of the ohio state legislature. we have a phone line set up for the buckeye state.

guest: it grows on trees. guest: some people think it's a football team. in some parts of the stated grows even more. it has been used for i don't know how many years. host: they beat nebraska and that was a big win for ohio. guest: that was. host: jim is joining us from sunberry, ohio. caller: i was just wanting to make a comment. ahead.o-ahe and my i'm in my 60s

wife has been sick before. i think we have a short memory when it comes to what they were handed when they took office. i feel like when obama took office, he was on the titanic and it was getting ready to go down. somehow he pulled it up out of their and we are on pretty solid ground compared to what it could have been. we seem to forget how bad it was when this man took office. i am an independent. i don't think case it is what turned the states around. i think it was obama and the auto industry. i just think we have a short

memory on what this guy was handed when he took office. host: thanks for the call. guest: i don't think anyone will dispute is argument that the president inherited a bad situation. we were coming through some of the most difficult times we have had. now we have had four years. we have had a 23 million americans that are still searching for employment. just in the last few days we broke a 43 straight months of national unemployment above 8%. we just dropped below that at 7.8%. our national deficit has grown through $16 trillion. the president said he was gone to cut that in half, but it doubled under his watch. very disturbing is that when the president came into office there were 32 million americans on food stamps.

today its 47 million. there is still an incredible number of ohioans and americans out there struggling. the choice is clear. we can have four more years like the last of zero four. what america needs is a real recovery. only romney and ryan can provide that. host: when the president took office we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. since the president took office, we have 5.5 million additional jobs. truck about the automobile recovering, he saved the automobile industry and 1/88 jobs in the state are reflective of the auto industry. i worked the railroad 41 years. the guys and women working there, they're happy, jumping up and down because they have employment. one out of eight jobs are connected to the auto industry.

not only that, the government at the time, strickland, and the president came to and youngstown, my area, and it one of the last steel companies in the area was given a $20 million stimulus amount that created a tremendous amount of jobs, particularly 1 mile from my area, it in an area of youngstown that's really struggling. so you see this incredible turnaround. he was hit with those 800,000 jobs per month. he created the 5.5 million. just recently are finding out the unemployment level was finally dropped below 8%. that is significant. because now we are seeing a trend where we are creating jobs for the opportunities people expected from this president. is it enough? absolutely not, but it least it's going in the right direction. we are seeing some success in job creation. host: but it has been an anemic recovery.

as you look at past recoveries in the '80s and '90s, this has been the slowest. what do you tell people working three jobs that cannot get implemented they are looking for and that companies are holding back because of government regulations? guest: don't forget the history of what we did in the depression. there was a struggle for many years. this was the toughest recession since the depression. host: there was a war to end that. have funded we two wars as well, which started in the bush administration. the dollar is used in iraq are now being funneled into areas for development to try to get down the debt. there's a real struggle going on. we all know there was a recession. i really do believe and people in ohio believe we are starting to turn things around. if you are given a bunch of problems and then you say to the

voters that these problems were created by the administration that supposedly cut taxes for the very wealthy and continues to cut taxes for the corporation and a president comes in and changes that and gives new direction, do you really want to go back to the policies that brought us the recession? i don't think so. guest: if four years is not enough, how much is? he has had four years to get his policies going and now we are very slowly starting to make progress. it's not fast enough for america and the middle-class. america used to be the place to be able to find a great job and to hire workers, to start a great business. i'm not certain that's the case anymore. we need to do that for the middle class. guest: i want to see the things that are really happening in a positive way. when talk about reducing the unemployment rate, that's positive.

we talk about creating jobs for the automotive industry, that's positive. we lost 40,000 jobs in the area where i'm from. that's over 30 years, not four years. now we are recovering. if it takes a lot of government investment, personal investment, business investment. and we are seeing a turnaround. so i'm happy about that. this economy is showing some improvement. we have to say, let's keep on working on it, mr. president. host: diane is joining us from california, a democrat. caller: good morning. i am enjoying this. can you hear me? host: we can. caller: it's early in california and the president is out here with president clinton as well. what i want to do about, i was born in east liverpool.

my grandfather had a pottery store in youngstown. my other grandfather was from yugoslavia and worked as a school principal 30 years in .idland's pennsylvania, so i know the area. the autoworkers are very proud. i have relatives who retired after 30 years from the autoworkers. so i have steel workers as well in my family and labor. my father drove a semi for the steel mills 28 years in midland, pennsylvania. president obama has worked very hard getting the student loan rates down. said thetative 1leviin

republicans cut down talks completely on jobs and wanting to cut the education credit. the president signed the "dream act," and hundreds of thousands of students are able to get their education. i am educated. i put my son through law school. it is his birthday today on columbus day, october 8. we moved to california when i was 8 years old. my mother remarried and my stepfather was a marine at camp pendleton and coronado. host: thank you for the call. guest: everything she said, i disagree with. she did talk about lowering the cost of education for kids

getting into college. that is significant. she also talked about the blue part of the state that has really struggled. over the last 30 or 35 years. it's now starting to come back with a gas and oil industry, making sure that it is safe, with the steel industry, it's starting to come back. and certainly with the automotive industry. we have to be positive about those kind of things. if we continuously be rated president and start saying government is not working, voters react to that. jay and i know that go to washington or columbus, they does know we are politicians and they're not happy about government. so we have to start showing the successes of government. as president is doing a heck of a job. host: if you look at the roots of the deficit, and republicans

had control of the house, the two wars were put on a credit card and medicare part d, which began the escalation. if mitt romney is elected, the $5 trillion tax cut, which is what the total price tag is, how you bring down a $16 trillion debt and continue to provide tax cuts? guest: governor romney has had a history, whether it is in the private sector or as governor of massachusetts or his phenomenal work when he chaired the olympic committee it's all exciting, of being able to balance budgets, being able to bring people together. host: where do the numbers add up? guest: the governor in the last debate said that his numbers did not come to that amount. i'm not certain what it is, but i do know this.

a philosophy that john kennedy had and ronald reagan has. you want to lower the tax base and broaden the base. we have heard many discussions about how many americans are not paying taxes. if we get more people back to work and paying taxes and contributing, that does have a rising tide and does lift all boats. do we want to have a lower tax rate with more people paying ai? host: jim is on the republican line from corpus christi, texas. caller: one of your guests made the remark that in ohio, being a purple state, they go republican or democrat. they don't have a lot of passion

for politics -- politicians to get the job done. i don't think we should wait forever for a difference to be made. another comment i wanted to make, i am a big believer in the best man will win. that this not just apply to candidates running for reelection. the best companies will survive. i think bailing out these things, intervening, it's probably not a good idea. host: thanks for the call from texas. guest: in terms of the impatience of ohio voters, i think he's right. ohio has been hit disproportionately hard during the most recent recession. we are 48th in jobless. only california and new york had more job losses, and michigan as well. we have been hit disproportionately hard. as a result, the citizens of

this state of ohio don't have a great deal of patience. i think the fact that we are continuing to see this slow recovery is something that is not going to be very helpful to the president in the next few weeks. host: a question from one of the students. if you introduce yourself and what you are studying. guest: my name is dick young and i'm a senior at ohio state. i want to thank c-span for being here and thank you to the two representatives for your time. host: host: i'm jake young. i am passionate about the great lakes. in regard to president obama's stance and governor romney's stance to ensure that asian cap don't enter the great lakes, i want to ask what the state legislature is doing and what

governor kasich's position is to ensure that we preserve the great lakes region but also to ensure that the great lakes region will drivthrive guest: tf things we are doing. of west erie is very important. i appreciate that question. they have had a substantial impact on the success and survival of lake erie. the governor i did not think is doing enough, obviously. -- i do not think is doing enough, obviously. my brothers and i have a cottage right on lake erie. we've seen a decrease in the success of taking care of the contaminant and pollution that drips in there, and i am very upset because we have not been able to take care of and focus on the great lakes.

we of a great lakes compact that has been ignored. we of a serious problem with farming chemicals going into lake erie. - we have a serious problem with firming chemicals going into lake erie. as sad as that is, i think on a national level the president is looking not just a lake erie but all of the great lakes and making sure we protect it. i think the environmental laws that have been fighting for it have their job cut out for them. -- the environmentalists that have been fighting for it have their job cut out for them. i see the opportunity slipping away. host: our conversation with robert hagan from the youngstown area, and jay hottinger, who is from here in ohio. our next calller is from columbus. monica. good morning. caller: good morning.

if the republicans have such great ideas, why is it that mitt romney will lie about future policies, and why is it there is such a great desire -- that they are trying to suppress the vote t? the voters that are allowed to vote, that is the person you want in positions. that means for some reason you did not believe your candidate can win. as far as president obama and jobs, the house continually would not allow anything he wanted to go through that that would help the people. that is the problem that i have. anytime you have someone who rather than cares about the people, a determination to prevent the president from being successful, rather than caring about the policies that will help the people in the united

states. i will wait and listen for your comments. guest: there was a lot of points there. but the start on the notion of suppressing the vote. = -- let me start on the notion of suppressing the vote. there is a lot of talk about the early voting and the three days before the election, and i did not think most ohioans recognize this, but we allow 35 days of early voting. the 676 hours that you could go from your home. if you want to vote in person, 250 hours. none of the contiguous states allow people to vote early without some sort of excuse or valid reason. for no reason at all or any reason at all, people are able to vote 767 hours.

when you look at only one of three states sent out about its application to every single registered voter in the state of ohio, ohio is just one of those three states. when it comes to access to voting and comes to the access of early voting, ohio takes a backseat to no one. host: ye into the weekend before the elections? -- why into the weekend before the elections? guest: the board of elections came to the general assembly in said election day still matters. election day is still an important day, and we need to be able to get ourselves ready and get ready for the work that needs to be done on election day. that was democrats and republicans. a democrat board of elections board member called me and was opposed to this. this was not as driven by

republicans. it was driven in a bipartisan effort that said let as have those three things off so we can get the roles ready and be prepared for election day. that is at iguest: disingenuous answer. i stood on the floor of the ohio house and said show me one instance of voter fraud. zero. it's a row influence on voter fraud. no proof whatsoever. this leads me to the whole issue of not only being disingenuous, but lobbying. our president that has led three times. what about medicare, pre- existing conditions, and about the budget dollars. you have an electorate out there wanting the truth in the presidential candidates and now state officials say the same thing over and over again. -- and the presidential candidate and now the state

officials saying the same thing over and over again. the mitt romney campaign and himself has been lying to the american public. you do not have bipartisanship here in this state. you did not have it in the u.s. congress that of the jobs bill the president offered. fought medicare overall he fought for. bought for obama care. even make compromises with republicans, and they still did not vote for it. -- he even made compromises with republicans, and they still did not vote for it. i am tired of it, and so are the people. guest: i suggest you get those talking points out to the democratic members of the board of elections. that is not what they tell us when they come to columbus and

call our office. the directors and board members are saying they wanted those three days, and the legislature listen to them. host: farrell, hamilton county. we are in columbus. go ahead. thank you for calling. caller: i think it is interesting we did not hear anything about the word abortion. we hear the words women's rights. but we do not hear the word abortion in this whole election. i think it is time we say the word abortion. 45-60 percent of black pregnancies end up an abortion. the black community should wake up. guest: the 1973 law has already been reviewed by the supreme court in past. it is a law that is legal in

protecting the women's right to choose is very important. not only of this election, but every election. the fact is we're talking about making sure those that are living are protected by a health care and making sure people do get health care. as far as i am concerned, when you start talking about issues that divide us, i think the number one issue, the issues that divide us, and i will not participate in that kind of discussion. guest: a lot of people feel strongly about this issue. i am pro-life. we believe in the sanctity of life. right now the most important thing is getting our economy turned around and getting their real recovery. that is why we're seeing some much time focus on this because there are so many americans that are hurting. that is not to diminish the importance of the issue brought

up by the collar. host: if you are just turning in, we have "washington journal" on the road in columbus, ohio. we are at the ohio state university. home to about 57,000 students. our next call is kim on the democrat line. good morning. caller: i am a little horse, so tried to bear with me. in 2010 -- i am almost choked up over this. i feel like black people did not go out and represent our democratic party. that was totally ridiculous. once the governor got in, he came in like a lion. and i will honestly say he did go after primarily black people or minorities. what struck me is he went straight at white people.

i felt like he went straight after them. i am not even a union worker. i was down here watching police officers in tears. you think about this. you go to your job. now you go out in stand in front of the state house all day. then you have to get in parade in go out and get signatures all day. i am talking about union, all the people who mean something to it. firemen and policemen. teachers. host: thank you. guest: well, you know, look, elections do not change the map or the facts. when the governor took over, we were 48 in the nation in job losses. we had 84 cents in the state

rainy day account and were facing a structural budget deficit of $8 billion. some very difficult decisions have to be made. we passed a number of measures pushed by the governor in the general assembly and were able to build $8 billion budget deficit without doing it with a tax increase. we were able to do it through reforms. there were some cuts involved in that. there were difficult decisions that had to be made, but at the end of the day we lead and are now bearing the fruits of that. ohio is doing much better than many of the surrounding states. that goes back to the governor and the work of the general assembly in deserve much of the credit for the turnaround in ohio. host: voter turnout will be what percentage? guest: it looks like it could be over 55 percent. i am still not happy with the 55%. those numbers are always in a state of flux. i think people are more

interested right now. in one of my areas i was almost despondent because of lower turnout. that woman is exactly right. you have to remember one thing. you can cut a budget that the state, but you will also cut the local government funds. if you are cutting education funds that make it difficult to almost put the state of ohio behind mississippi, and that is a sad case, because mississippi hardly funds the education system. there is a real struggle in making sure we get kids through college. you can balance the budget, but you balloted on the backs of the middle class and the poor, and that is a real struggle. the people now are starting to say they see through the facades of this administration and republicans attempt at holding think youoavote, and i will see a sea change. caller: we have time for two

more phone calls. ash. good morning. caller: can you hear me? host: please go ahead. caller: i want to apologize for both of the gentleman to have such a lackluster attendance. a topic very interesting. i am in new york. i am talking about the issue of voter suppression, and more importantly in ohio because it is the swing state, the attention given to the voting machines, which has been proven time and time again to be a very decisive entity in voting elections due to the corruption and how easily it is to alter the results. these voting machines that are owned by private corporations do not let the government see the software and how it tallies the vote is a real problem. there is a professor at nyu --

host: what is the process here in ohio? how did it verify the numbers are correct -- do they verify the numbers are correct? guest: i do agree with my colleague that we do have bipartisanship at the board of electors. we have the insurance of making sure we have an open process where people can watch. there is a paranoia, and i understand that, about using machines. we also understand in florida when they have a hanging chad's and for looking at everything, those were serious issues that decided the presidency of the united states and leader of the free world. what we're looking at in the paranoid weight is we want to make sure the machines are working. -- in the paranoid way, we want to make sure the machines are working. guest: the board of elections prepared and.l

i think it will come down to ohio, florida, and possibly virginia. i do not want to understate the importance of ohio. we will not have a florida moment. and one thing i want whether you are republican or democrat or somewhere in between, the voters need to know the vote will be counted. you have 767 hours to be able to vote. your boat will be counted and counted accurately. -- your vote will be counted and counted accurately. i understand your concerns, but at the head of the day how the vote is how well will be recorded -- at the end of the day, how you vote is how it will be recorded. guest: all those 38 days and hours my good friend talks about

those are instituted under the democratic process of the last governor, not this governor. we know there were attempts to block the votes. we will fight as much as we can. we want a fight in the courts. had to take it to courts. the fact is, democracy works when people pay attention and participate in it. and-- we had to take it to courts. guest: those were very bipartisan with almost overwhelming support from democrats and republicans. host: regardless of who wins the state, the winner over ohio will win by what percentage point? guest: under two. host: do you agree? guest: when everything is said and done, i think the president will win by three points. host: steve on the phone. caller: good morning. to your democratic candidates,

we a lot of people from youngstown, ohio, that live during the week of an eerie because they cannot find good work and ohio and go home on the weekends. my thing is i always look at not so much what president obama was left, but how it got to that point. 1998 president clinton it eliminates last legal. glass-stegall.s then the government suing banks for giving people loans they could not afford. in 2005 the bush administration tries to put through the bank and finance reform act, which is totally by democrats, to get as to the point where we have a crisis where we cannot refuse to waste this. we need to use it to keep our party in power. if you look at the history and see how you get to things,

people need to look at stuff and research things. to sit there and call me a liar because i am republican, i find that very disingenuous, very low politics. thank you. guest: who called you a liar? i do not think anyone called you a liar, but i will tell you the person you're voting for is a lawyer. i can say that without worrying about a fact check on that. fact checkers of the united states -- all over the united states have found he lied about medicare and a multitude of issues relating to the budget. when you talk about the people from youngstown going to here, they're going up there to gamble. the facts remain we put more people back to work in the youngstown area. i hope you do more research on that, because the metropolitan area of youngstown and war and

now leads the united states for the fastest- growth in the united states. you better do a little fact check there. i am glad you are participating in the process, but you're wrong about the history of what happened under the bush administration. the banking attempt was not to allow people to get off on their loans. if in fact was allowed to -- in fact was allow the banking industry to rip off people. more homes have been foreclosed on during the bush administration, not the obama administration. i would love to talk about facts, but maybe you're just a little bit disingenuous on your backs. -- on your facts. guest: the word liar is a harsh word. we talked about trying to find commonality here. what i will say about it romney, having been around him a great

deal, is a man of great faith and strong family and strong family values. if given the opportunity, i know he will leave the country with honesty and integrity. we might disagree with his policies. i disagree with the president and certainly some of his policies, but i certainly try not to question his motives or goals or why he does what he does. i would hope the voters would hope both sides can return stability to this process, and maybe not to be quite as divided. but fight, argue, in debate, but i hope it is fair at the end of the day and able to move forward as a country. host: republican on the line. supporter of mitt romney. -- robert hagan from ohio and

jay hottinger, thank you for joining us. a month not to go. we're in early voting here in ohio and a number of other states. we will talk to students -- students here in a moment >. >> more foreign policy news, a think tank that briefed congress and other branches of the government says iran could produce enough weapons to arm and nuclear warheads within two- three months. they said they would need many additional months to make a prototype bomb for underground testing, and even longer to make a missile warhead. an update on libya from the former head of a special forces site security team in libya. and you would tell cbs news that in spite of multiple pleas from himself and other u.s. security officials on the ground for more not less security personnel, the

state department removed as many as 34 people from the country in the six months before a killedst attack and then gautht chris stevens and three other americans. chris wood will appear at a house oversight committee hearing that will lead -- that will look at decisions leading up to the attack on the u.s. embassy. more on foreign policy from the obama campaign. they say mitt romney has a high bar to show he is ready for the responsibility -- responsibilities of the presidency. in remarks to reporters, he says the only person that has defended europe more than it romney is probably chevy chase. the morning -- this morning the mitt romney releases a television advertisement that is timed to coincide with the speech that calls him reckless and amateurish on foreign-policy questions. adding if this is how he handles

the world now, think of what he might do as president. meanwhile, in his speech this morning, mitt romney will accuse the obama administration of fundamentally misunderstanding the threat of radical islam the administration is rejecting bipartisan consensus by not putting more muscle on the world stage. mitt romney will also talk about the way president obama handled the assault on the american diplomatic post in egypt and libya and will say "it is time to change course in the middle east." you could hear his address at 11:20 on c-span radio or watch it on c-span. those are some of the latest headlines on c-span radio. >> this government, as promised, has maintained the closest surveillance of the soviet military buildup on the island of cuba. within the past week, unmistakable evidence has established the fact that a

series of offensive missile sites is now in preparation on that imprisoned island. the purpose of these bases can be none other than to provide a nuclear strike capability against the western hemisphere. >> do you deny the u.s.s.r. has based and is facing intermediate range missiles? yes or no. do not wait for the translation. yes or no. >> live sunday from the jfk presidential library and museum. journalists and the lawmakers on the 50th anniversary of the cuban missile crisis starting at 12:30 pm. eastern on csappan tv. this month, we are asking middle and high school students to send

a message to the president as part of the student documentary competition. students will answer the question, what is the most important issue the president should consider in 2013 for a chance to win the grand prize of $25,000. $50,000 in total prize is available. this is open to students grade 6-12. for complete details and rules, go online to studen tcam.org. host: joining us from the a high your union is kyle strickland, the minority affairs coordinator. niraj antani is with the college republicans communication director. enthusiasm level for mitt romney? guest: i would say it is present a high. we saw in 2008 president obama had high levels of enthusiasm.

i was a senior in high school. even in high school we saw many presidents vote. we're not seeing this time around. there is high level enthusiasm for rimitt romney. host: today the president coming to osu. what crowd can he expect? -- the president coming to a was yosu tomorrow. guest: he made a surprise visit to the diner right here in the union. very exciting. students spread the word of mouth. put it on facebook. everyone came. they all wanted to see the president. we're really excited for the president to come and speak with will.i.am. everyone is excited to see the

president. he is really help the students, especially with bubbling funding for pell grants -- doubling funding for pell grants. host: he has been campaigning on a number of campuses. yet your generation will inherit a 16 trillion dollar debt. a lot of questions about medicare and medicaid in the future of the country. why do you support the president? guest: that is a great question. all students are very engaged in issues such as the deficit, because when you have students inheriting such a deficit it is extremely important we focus on our future and what the path going forward will be. we have two plans, and there is a clear choice. president obama and mitt romney have made that clear. the choice is whether we will move backward or forward.

when we make these choices, we will have to focus on whether we will invoito invest in the midde class and education or millionaires and billionaires? that is extremely important when you look at mitt romney's tax plan. the only way you pay for that is either burdening the middle- class or raising the deficit. it is extremely important we focus on where we are investing. we invest in jobs, training, education or invest in the middle class or millionaires and billionaires? host: why are you supporting mitt romney? guest: president obama, in his short for years has raised the debt by five trillion dollars. the share of the national debt is $50,000 per person. it is not want to be president obama's generation that will pay it off. it will be myself and fellow students. students are understanding they

do not want that. students are supporting iran because he has the plan to ensure when we graduate from college, there is an economy where there is jobs. right now there is not. half recent college graduates are unemployed or underemployed. students go to college to be educated to get a job. i have many friends that are graduating this spring and cannot find jobs, and it is because of the obama economy. host: our lines are open. we do have the mind set aside for those of you that live in ohio. the first call is from cory in columbus. caller: good morning. with president obama instituting more pell grants, what made you think of this as a backdoor draft? students who cannot afford college and of going into the

military programs to get an education. guest: well, i think mitt romney in the first debate supported, made it clear support for education. the democrats will say that republicans want to cut education and make education harder to attain for students, and that is just not true. ryan wanty and govpaul to make sure school is accessible for all students. on the issue of pell grants, the president has tried to divide forever on that. the point of being a back door, i do not think that is true. schools admit students. i think pole grants are going to students who get into the college anyway, and have trouble affording college. one thing that has drawn contrast is the democrats will

say mitt romney does not support education. that is not true. i would argue he supports it more. education was heavily supported in massachusetts. the education system there was rated very highly. host: let me put the numbers on the screen. 1.5 million young people between ages of 80-29 eligible to vote here in ohio. you both, i assume, have student loans. the average debt of college students is just under $28,000. the and apply merit among those between the ages of 20-24 is about 16.5%. guest: that is definitely a big issue for me and a big concern, the student loans and student interest rates. this affects meet effectively -- this affects what we fought for. making sure we talk to the

legislators and talked about how we can afford to see the interest rates doubled. that is why we saw president obama during the summer go to college campuses and speak to students to say we cannot let the republican-led congress raise interest rates and see them double. that is something where i am glad has passed in a bipartisan manner. it is extremely important. when we talk about health grants -- pell grants, we talk about who will be investing in education programs? i am not saying that mitt romney does not support education, but when you look at the tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, the truth is if you will not raise taxes on the middle class, you have to make cuts in education. i think it is clear and have made it clear that you will have to focus on the middle-class and

investing in education, and president obama has done that. and host: the early voting that is now in place. but stich a look back at 2008. look back in a 2008. about 61% of those under the age of 30 supporting senator obama in 2008. only 39 percent for john mccain. it increased under post- graduate. a little different among high- school graduates, because the president getting only 47 percent, john mccain with 53 percent. what will we see in 2012? guest: keitel brought up the party line that mitt romney is advocating for. brought up the party

line. on the issue of turnout to vote. 66% voted for obama. two or three weeks ago there was a poll released, and in the poll, 18-29 year old age bracket is 45% 4 mitt romney. the first time a republican has broken the 40 ce% bracket for youth. governor romney has the experience to create jobs. the 18-29 year olds are either coming nearing graduation and wanting jobs or are suffering in the obama economy. i think you will see a turnaround -- turnout in the polls and will favor for mitt romney. host: we have been focusing on

key sectors of the electorate. we will get back to your calls in just a moment. what shape your ideology? why are you a democrat and why you support president obama? do you support president obama? guest: mostly what influence the is my family and having empathy for others. i have always believed it is extremely important to be a voice for people that did not have a voice. president obama has shown that and making sure that is true for the world. we do not turn our backs on anyone. we want to make sure everyone is in this together and move forward together as a country. that is why when president obama ran as the candidates in 2008, he made sure it was not a red state, blue states, it was the

united states. he is still focused on that to make sure we can reach across i knothe aisle. it does not make sense the day he gets sworn into office that the republican top goal is to make sure he is a one-term president. host: any interest in elected office yourself? guest: i am not entirely sure. we will see. host: why are you a republican? guest: my family gained citizenship in the early 1980's. they came to this country to pursue the american dream. they wanted to ensure their children had the same opportunity to pursue the american dream. when you look of the candidates you have to make a decision on their ideologies and what they believe and what their experience is on which canada can best help everyone. all people pursue the american dream. i think that as governor romney. host: our guest is niraj antani

and kyle strickland. james is on the phone from cincinnati. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. thank you for c-span. i sit here and listen to both of you young people maintain your position and strong plea -- staunchly support your party. i look at the situation today and i see president obama who use the support of the house to push through the democratic interest with zero republican support. now you see a far-right candidates coming in preaching nothing but the conservative aspect, which is staunchly in opposition to the democratic position. question to both of you is do you see a fundamental flaw in the bipartisan nature of the government today and think that might be the downfall of why we

cannot get anything done as a country? host: are you still with us? how would you answer your own question ? caller: i would answer 100 percent, yes. you cannot get anything done because you are people who represent the party, rather than constituents. i think it should be legal. -- should be illegal. guest: i did not see it as a fundamental flaw in our government, but i do think partisanship and the level of not being able to get anything done is a problem. that is a problem under democratic president and republican presidents. president obama has worked to reach across the aisle. the republicans have staunchly stood by saying they will block everything. right now i think we have had

that fever of making sure the republicans are trying to make sure he is a one-term president so they cannot support anything president obama passes. it is extremely important that we get more students, more young people, older people involved in saying we are paying attention, we would like to see congress take action. we would like to see democrats and republicans work together because that is the only way we can truly get things done. thatre all american values we're fighting for. we need republicans and democrats to agree upon them. i think after the election you will see the fever kind of break. they realize president obama can be a two-term president. host: our next caller's from dayton, ohio. caller: i would like to ask the young people how much do they know about the history of this country?

about the 47% mitt romney said he did not care about, and what really hit me is when obama said the 54 percent are the ones that will really be hurt. i worked very hard since the age of 14. i got hurt on my job and now i am disabled. i am 55. the voucher that mitt romney wants to put out there would not even touch my bills within a month. i would like to note to either of those gentlemen have family members that are struggling to put money in the economy that will be left out if mitt romney takes office? host: thanks for the call. niraj antani, how would yo

ou respond to that? guest: there is a democratic party line, the one that president obama uses to divide the country. that is simply not true. mitt romney's plan to create 12 million new jobs will help everyone. he is a plan to ensure medicare is fair and sustainable. everyone has said he will insurer when the insurers medicare is stable, that those nearing the age where you are eligible for medicare will not be harmed. on the issue of what president obama would like everyone to think, he would like everyone to think president obama does not -- he would like everyone to think mitt romney does not care about everyone. even president obama understand he will look out for everyone. host: when you talk to friends

at a fraternity party or football game, do your friends and colleagues talk politics? guest: yes. i hang around a lot with college democrats, and i am friend with a lot of republicans as well. they did not talk too much of politics. it will talk about the issues at hand, but they are not deep questions about politics. they may not be questioned specifically for five trillion dollar tax cut for example. so when they see a debate, they say they're talking about a five trillion dollar tax cut. what is the case? what happens is you get the back and forth. you have candidates for we numbers around, and a lot of students may not pay a fact attention to that. host: your reaction to the

debate last week of the university of denver? guest: i think it was great. i think romney clearly articulated a vision for the country in president obama was unable to defend his record. on the issue of what students are saying, i do not think they're necessarily talking about the details, but they're talking about their situation. i met as student, and i do not remember his name, but he told me he graduated last year from the fisher college of all-state, one of the top-rated colleges in the country, and he wanted a job in finance, but because of the obama economy, he was not able to get one. in 2008 he told me he did not vote, but this year he is voting for mitt romney because he wants a job. host: sarah joining us from lincoln, calif. on the democrats lined. . caller: i am glad to see these

young people engaged as they are. i am disappointed to see the audience a little skinny. i would like to start off by saying i am not of your generation. i am retired. i am 64-years-old. i was start off by apologizing to you for what you will inherit, not just the deficit you see now, but other things that are coming that i will not go into. make no mistake, it is not your just generation that will be stuck with the deficit, but your children, too, and the ones that are not even born yet. i would like to the bulk of your views on this statement. this is not obama as the economy. this is not bush's economy. this is our economy, and we are stuck with it. if anyone thinks we would get out of it in one terms or to terms, i think you were poking -- or two terms, you are smoking

some funny weed. we need a new economy and new direction. that is what i look like to hear your opinion on. yes or no? guest: definitely this is not any one person's economy. we're all in it together. president obama would he took office, we were losing an average of 750,000 jobs per month. we're fighting our way back. it is extremely important we understand that we are recovering. recovery is not happening as fast as we would like, but we are in the right direction. we did not want to turn back. -- we do not want to turn back. the unemployment rate dropped to 7.8%, the lowest since obama took office. that is a great sign of

progress. i do not think it is time for mitt romney or anyone on the republican side to play partisan politics and say this means this just to score political points. we're working on the right path away, investing in the middle class and the education, not investing in millionaires and billionaires. we simply cannot continue to give tax breaks to millionaires and billionaires. there is no way we could lower the deficit with this. guest: at some point the president has to take responsibility for the economy. we saw over 40 straight months of 8% unemployment. the last time unemployment was over 8 percent was when i was a freshman in college. i and our senior. abou -- now i am a senior. i agree with you it will be a

long-term fix, but you have to look at which candidates can put this on a path to recovery. the president's response has been called tepid, even by democrats. host: have you met governor romney? guest: i have. he was extremely impressive. he was very personable. i got to chat with him. a lot of people like to say president obama is likable. i found governor romney extremely likable. guest: he has come to campus several times. i've got to shake his hand will couple times. very nice and extremely likable. that is another reason why i am supporting him. and host: alexandria, virginia. another line for independents. caller: i thought i heard governor romney say he wanted to

reduce the tax rate for everyone. my first question is, what would that cost in terms of revenue that would be lost? second question is, i also thought i heard governor from he wanted to reduce the rate and grow the base. my question is, is that the order it must go in? lastly, the young man or presenting the republicans indicated it was president obama's policies that were wrong. what specific policies did president obama and act that you believe or wrong, and how would mitt romney do differentlit dif? guest: felt quite a few questions. i will try to answer them the best that i can. you are right, governor romney wants to reduce the rate for all

brackets by 20 percent. at the same time, he wants to ensure higher-income folks do not pay more because he will get rid of some of the deductions and specialized exemptions that they get. in regards to cost, i do not know the exact cost. under his plan, there are born to be tax reliefs for middle- class -- there are going to be tax reliefs for middle class. on the second question, which i believe was growing the base. absolutely. you can do both of the same time. one of the reasons we do not have enough revenue in the government is there is not a big tax base. question, amonghird specific policies, the first thing is president obama has not

really done anything to fix the economy. under his plan he passed a stimulus that was by all accounts called ineffective, only added to the debt. he has proposed various measures that have received no support. there was a budget for the united states of america where he had zero democratic votes in the house and senate. what policies? i disagree with the stimulus. i disagree with the various bailout. the other thing is policy. he has not really given a positive vision for america. mitt romney, often people say he has not given details in his plan. the fact of the matter is president obama has not given us a plan. host: william from portsmouth, ohio. good morning. caller: hello? host: guest go ahead. caller: i have a question for

the republican. a question and comment. and how can anybody of any intelligence, especially one of higher intelligence, believe anything that romney says? this is mr. flip-flop. even mr. ryan calls him mr. stench. the man is a businessman in salesman in will tell you anything he thinks you want to hear. guest: william, the first thing i like to say is i think both democrats and republicans are very intelligent. i think both sides love their country, so i do not appreciate what you said. the second part is i think it romney has given a vision for the country. portsmouth has been very hard

hit by the obama economy. we have not seen relief in that area. we have not seen jobs. the only jobs that have been created are because of the republican governor and republican legislature. booksld like to to talk abo in the county and you will find folks struggling. -- talk to folks in the county and you will find folks struggling. host: what percentage of students have a smart phone? [laughter] guest: a lot. host: social media, how big of a deal is that in terms of mobilizing supporters? guest: it is a huge deal. everyone is on facebook and twitter. pretty much everyone has a smart phone. it is somewhere where you get your message out. president obama and his team have done a great job of that. as soon as it was announced, it was all over facebook and twitter.

student and my friends found out about it. iespecially when i went to early vote, you took pictures and tweeted about it. the last day of register to vote is tomorrow. we have to get everyone out there. put that on facebook and twitter and get the message out. host: the cspan bus has been traveling through virginia and ohio talking to young people about the issues important to them in this campaign. >> my presidential candidates is barack obama because he believes in education in teachers and supporting the middle class, which i do not believe mitt romney has the idea of what the middle class is. host: the middle class. romney.er attack, romne mitt guest: you hear this line over

and over again, and it is simply not true and not working. under president obama's economy we've seen the middle class struggle. imy friends are in the middle class, and i am in the middle class. i see my parents struggle. they want jobs. the fact of the matter is president obama wants to divide the country. i think we talked a little bit about partisanship in this segment. in 2008 president obama was elected on the notion he would change washington. just the other day he said he could not. and he cannot. we need a new vision for the country, and that is coming from governor romney. guest: first of all, i think it is extremely important to realize when we talk about partisan politics, when it is referred to as the obama economy and obama cannot change washington, he was referring to the fact you cannot change washington by one person.

you cannot go in and say i am going to change washington. you need support from the american people. that means you did not write off half the nation before you took office. it is extremely important to look at this issue of the middle class. right now we're focused on who is going to make sure the middle class saves money and make sure they do not take the burden of tax cuts for millionaires and billionaires, and president obama's folks investing in the middle class and education. host: one more time out from miami university. and-- on-- one more tout. >> i think young people will definitely be a factor in the 2012 presidential election. a lot of the issues they're talking about will directly affect us in the future. host: how are you in gauging

your supporters outside of social media -- engaging your supporters outside of social media? guest: we of knocking on doors and phone banking, making sure people know how important this election is and how critically different divisions are. when you talk about the middle class in moving forward into will invest in the middle class and to will make sure we move forward, we talk about president obama. when we talked about who will move back and roll back regulations, more taxes for millionaires and billionaires, that is governor romney. it will not work now. and we have to focus on how can we move forward? we're focusing on making sure we for get out othe votes president obama. host: is this pretty typical of

the state of ohio? guest: you cannot get more of a battleground in columbus and ohio state. on the other question, i think we have been engaging supporters very well. our captors through the romney campaign has made almost 30,000 phone calls. -- our chapter through the romney campaign has made almost 30,000 phone calls. host: we have a minute left. please keep it brief. caller: you guys are both young. let's go back to 2006 when the real catastrophes started. looking at what pelosi, dodd- frank, the house and senate created. isn't this what the real economy is? back in 2006, we are now le

experiencing the effects of the pelosi era. guest: you want to take that? guest: i agree with you. president obama while preaching that has not lived up to it. he has been in the pockets of the speaker and has that reached across the aisle. has tried toboehenr reach across the aisle. -- speaker boehner. guest: the recession we inherited was not from the 2006 democrats or harry reid. it is important when we talk about this, a lot of republicans will say president obama is blaming republicans. when they look at the economy when it is growing, they will say it is growing, despite of its policies. it does not make sense.

they're trying to see things that if the economy grows it is not obama support. host: kyle strickland from the college democrats. niraj antani from the republicans. thank you for tuning in from columbus, ohio. thank you for being with us on this monday. enjoy the rest of your holiday weekend. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] later this morning, more from the road to the white house with a campaign event of mitt romney at the v